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Grace glared at the cup of tea. “That’s sleepy-time tea. What are you trying to do to me?”
Lou didn’t answer, and when she stopped just short of the lab doors in front of them Grace had to hop to the side to avoid crashing into her. Grace looked up from her cup to see Lou staring at the double doors like she had just realized something. And from the look of her wide brown eyes, that something wasn’t good.
“Oh hell,” Lou hissed.
“Lou? What’s wrong?”
“I was left unsupervised, okay?” Lou whirled on her friend with a shake of her head. “You know how I get when you’re not here.”
Grace fell back a step. “Oh no. What did you do?”
“I saw some very compelling data-”
“You went on a science bender, didn’t you?!” Grace yelled.
Lou gave the stack of coffees a dangerous shake. “It was justso tempting…”
Grace gave her a stricken look. “Lou, please tell me you didn’t set anything on fire. You promised the janitor you wouldn’t.”
“It wasn’t even that big, you know,” Lou said.
“I was sick for one day!” Grace cried, a hand going to her hair.
“I know, I know,” Lou said, her eyes dropping to the coffees in front of her. “To be fair, I almost waited until lunchtime before I went nuts.”
“How self-disciplined of you.” Her hands went to her hips and she sucked her lips between her teeth as she stared down the double doors with Lou. Her friend’s sudden reluctance to enter the labs now made all the sense in the world.
Who knew what crime scene awaited them?
“Come on, let’s go see the damage you wrought, you little monster.”
“Well, I’myourlittle monster,” Lou muttered, trailing behind Grace as she pushed the doors open. “I got you tea.”
“But at what cost?” Grace asked, a grimace already on her face when she thought about the work it would take to clean the labs up. “I don’t care if my immune system is weakened. I demand coffee. That’s the only way I’m going to be able to cl-”
Her rant died on her lips when she turned and took in the labs.
The labs, which weren’t a wreck.
The labs that were, in fact, intact and spotless.
A sleeping Anton lay front and center on a table, a cleaning rag still clutched in one hand. She felt her heart clench, chest feeling too tight to breathe. How long must he have been here, to fall asleep on a table? She bit her lip and took in a shaky breath, crossing the labs to him. She had just brushed her knuckles against his cheek when Lou bounded into the room.
“Will you look at that,” Lou said with a flourish of her arms. “Exactly how I left them.”
“Yeah, uh huh.” Grace raised an eyebrow and shook her head at the relieved look on her friend’s face. “You think I was born yesterday? I know what you did.”
“Where’s your proof?”
Grace flicked a finger at Anton. “There’s my proof. Don’t think I don’t know he Cinderella’d this place back into shape.”
“I think you mean Sleeping Beauty. Look at the little darling,” Lou cooed, leaning over the table to look at Anton, who was—judging by the long-suffering sigh—now awake.
“Let a man sleep,” Anton groaned, rolling over and throwing an arm over his eyes. “You’re worse than the NYPD in Central Park waking me up. This is America, isn’t it? Can’t a man just sleep where he wants these days?”
“No,” Lou shot back.
“Why not?” he wanted to know.
